This Week on Xbox: April 13, 2018

We know you’re busy and might miss out on all the exciting things we’re talking about on Xbox Wire every week. If you’ve got a few minutes, we can help remedy that. We’ve pared down the past week’s news into one easy-to-digest article for all things Xbox! Or, if you’d rather watch than read, you can feast your eyes on our weekly video show above. Be sure to come back every Friday to find out what’s happening This Week on Xbox!

Inside Xbox Episode Two News RecapEarlier today, we aired episode two of Inside Xbox, as we continue to pull back the curtain on Team Xbox to celebrates our games, our features, and our fans. This episode was jam-packed full of everything you could want from a show like this, including the latest on our Xbox Backward Compatibility offerings, exciting news about Xbox FanFest at E3 2018, the debut of new console features, and an appearance from a very special guest. So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look at some of the biggest news coming out of this month’s episode of Inside Xbox. Watch the whole show in the player above or on our YouTube channel. Xbox Backward Compatibility Bill Stillwell came on the… Read more

Robocraft Infinity is Available Now Exclusively on Xbox One and Xbox Game PassHello, Xbox fans! I’m from Freejam, makers of Robocraft Infinity, and I’ve been tasked to introduce the game to the lovely Xbox audience. Robocraft Infinity is the second game to launch straight into Xbox Game Pass, following a trail blazed by Sea of Thieves (hey, Rare!) and our unique multiplayer shooter allows players to build awesome-looking highly customisable robots and then take those creations into fast paced 5 vs 5. battles online. Our game retails for $19.99 / £14.99 / €19.99 on the Microsoft Store and active Xbox Game Pass subscribers can play the game as part of their subscription starting now! Pretty cool, right? If you’ve never heard of Robocraft Infinity,… Read more

More Original Xbox Games Coming to Xbox One Backward CompatibilityToday we’re excited to announce even more additions coming to the Xbox One Backward Compatibility catalog this month, including 19 new Original Xbox games and six Xbox 360 games with Xbox One X Enhancements. Starting today, fans can play Sonic Generations for the first time on the Xbox One family of devices alongside other Xbox 360 favorites that will receive Xbox One X Enhanced updates such as Darksiders, Gears of War 2, Portal 2, Red Dead Redemption, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Later this month, we’ll release two batches of Original Xbox games – the first on April 17 and the second on April 26. All of these Original Xbox games will take advantage of the power of… Read more

Overgrowth is Now Available for Skyforge on Xbox OneThe time has come for a new era in the sci-fi fantasy world of Skyforge. The Overgrowth update has arrived and brought with it a brand-new class: the Grovewalker, along with a whole host of new features and changes. The Grovewalkers are fierce protectors. Summoning their powers directly from nature, they can easily protect their allies from harm. With the use of roots, they hold their foes to the ground while scattering seeds across the field of battle, sprouting carnivorous flowers to finish them off. If their foes get too close, the Grovewalker can become the living embodiment of… Read more

Play The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition for Free This Weekend with Xbox Live GoldIf you haven’t already experienced the snowy splendor of Skyrim, now’s your chance. Winner of more than 200 Game of the Year awards and remastered in stunning detail on Xbox One, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition will be free to play this weekend for all Xbox Live Gold members. From 12:01 a.m. PDT on Thursday, April 12, through 11:59 p.m. PDT on Sunday, April 15, Xbox Live Gold members can check out Skyrim Special Edition for free. That includes the base game as well as all the add-ons Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn. In addition to the free weekend, all Xbox One players will have a chance to pick up Skyrim Special Edition for 50% for a limited time. And for you… Read more

Shocking Upsets Dominate Gears of War Esports Pro Circuit Las Vegas OpenLast weekend, Gears Pro Circuit returned to Sin City for the Gears Pro Circuit Las Vegas Open with teams from around the world all vying for a share of the $200,000 prize pool. In a weekend filled with upsets, Ghost Gaming emerged triumphant to claim their first Gears Esports title. Going undefeated throughout the tournament, Ghost defeated Fable, the top European team, to secure their victory. The event had a large international representation with teams from Europe, Australia and Latin America all finishing in the top 12 – the best showing by international teams ever. However, the most surprising moment of the weekend was OpTic Gaming, reigning champ and the most dominant team in… Read more

Announcing More Details on Xbox FanFest: E3 2018Today, on the second episode of Inside Xbox, we revealed brand-new details on Xbox FanFest at E3 2018. When we started doing FanFest a little over 4 years ago, we not only wanted to create global rally venues for Xbox fans; we also wanted gamers everywhere to know how deeply important they are to our past, present and future. This year, we’re looking to do even more. Xbox has two fantastic offers at this year’s E3. First, you can win a chance to be one of the 400 lucky people to experience Xbox FanFest from June 10 through June 11, or win one of 1,000 brand-new Xbox Briefing-Only Fan Tickets! All winners will be able to enjoy the Xbox E3 Briefing in-person on Sunday, June 10 at 1:00… Read more

Calling All Xbox Adventures to Regalia: Of Men and MonarchsPrepare yourselves for an experience inspired by JRPG classics mixed with good ol’ adventuring, with a vast and vibrant story, skippable battles, an outstanding art style, and unexpected plot-twists! When we started working on Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs, we knew it was going to be much more than a tactical RPG. It’s a game about the restoration of your kingdom, bonding with spirited characters met during your journey, and embarking on the most peculiar quests possible. We also wanted to create a game of unforgettable, rewarding encounters and well-thought tactics… Read more

Inside Xbox One X Enhanced: Hellblade: Senua’s SacrificeMany of gaming’s most compelling stories come from those who’ve helped to create our favorite Xbox One games. In our Inside Xbox One X Enhanced series, these creators will share the behind-the-scenes accounts of the work involved in enhancing these epic games for Xbox One X, how they’ve helped chart the course of the world’s most powerful console, and what that means for the future of gaming. Today, we’ll be chatting with Ninja Theory’s Dominic Matthews, Commercial Director on the epic adventure game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. What specifically is your development team doing to enhance Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice for Xbox One X? We’ve put a lot of work and care… Read more

Tune-in Tomorrow to the Halo World Championship 2018 FinalsIn less than 24 hours, the biggest Halo esports tournament of the year – the Halo World Championship 2018 Finals – will kick off, where the very best professional Halo teams will battle at CenturyLink Field Event Center in Seattle, WA to compete for a $1 million prize pool and the prestigious title of Halo World Champion! The competition kicks off tomorrow at 12 p.m. PDT/3 p.m. EDT with Str8 Rippin vs Fable Esports on the Main stage, streaming live on Mixer.com/Halo, Twitch.tv/halo, Twitter and Facebook. Also, back by popular demand is the Bravo stream on Mixer.com/HCS, Twitch.tv/HCS, and MLG.tv/Halo, so all tournament matches will be broadcast in their entirety with the finest… Read more

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Team Up with Sam Fisher During Ghost Recon Wildlands Free Weekend, April 12-15Ghost Recon Wildlands begins its second year of post-launch content starting April 10, when the first of four major free updates, called Special Operations I, goes live for players who own the game on Xbox One. Adding new items, missions, and features, each Special Operations update will bring a substantial amount of new content, both for the campaign and for the Ghost War PvP mode – and the first update includes an appearance from Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher, which you can try for free this weekend along with the rest of the game. Voiced again by series veteran Michael Ironside, Sam appears during a new mission in which the Ghosts help him infiltrate an enemy camp at night,… Read more

Drop in to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds During Free Play Days Weekend, April 19-22Get ready for a free trial of PlayerUnknown’s Battlgrounds (PUBG) during Xbox Live Gold’s Free Play Days, beginning Thursday, April 19 at 12:01 a.m. PDT to Sunday, April 22 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Once the event begins, download the game by clicking on the Gold Member feature area on the Xbox Live home dashboard, or search for the game on the Microsoft Store via the Xbox Dashboard. Developed by PUBG Corp, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is the multi-award winning battle royale experience that drops players into a competitive survival battle where you’ll engage in a heart-racing fight to be the last player left alive. Loot for supplies and weapons, gear-up to take on the competition and… Read more

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Wargroove’s Classic Strategy Sandbox Coming Soon to Xbox OneWargroove is a light turn-based tactics game inspired by classics of the genre but updated with modern features and drawn in a charming, light-hearted pixel art style. Soon after Starbound came out of Early Access on PC and had its official 1.0 release, Chucklefish started an internal pitch process where everyone in the office brought forward their ideas for what games we should start working on next. Everyone in the office was a big fan of light tactical games like Advance Wars, Shining Force, and Battle for Wesnoth, but we found that there hadn’t been many games in that genre in several years. We really wanted to play a modern game like that, so we decided to make it… Read more

Starbound’s Story Within a Sandbox is Coming Soon to Xbox OneFor those of you unfamiliar with Starbound, it’s an open-ended sandbox game with a strong focus on building and crafting, like Minecraft and Terraria. It presents a whole universe of procedurally generated worlds that you can travel between at your leisure. A strong design principle of Starbound during its development was “a story in a sandbox,” which presented the team with some interesting design challenges to overcome! We had several goals that we wanted to reach so that Starbound would live up to its aim of presenting a typical video-game storyline with progression, without the… Read more

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Save Big on Xbox and PC Game Add-onsThe Microsoft Store Spring Add-on sale starts today, April 10, so save big on Xbox and PC game add-ons! Freshen up your gaming options and take advantage of savings on add-ons and season passes for select Xbox and PC games. Save up to 67% on Xbox game add-ons The Spring Add-on is the perfect time to upgrade your games with over 240 deals on popular Xbox One and Xbox 360 game digital add-ons. Save on Xbox One season passes for Assassin’s Creed Origins, Call of Duty: WWII, Shadow of War, Witcher 3, and more. Discover savings on an array of game add-on content for Xbox from Rise of the Tomb Raider, Gears of War 3, BioShock Infinite, Far Cry 4, and more. Save up… Read more

5 Tips and Tricks to Saving Humanity in ExtinctionExtinction is launching today and we’re extremely excited for people to get their hands on a video game that gives players a true experience of going toe-to-toe against enemies of tremendous scale: the Ravenii. Ravenii are a monster race only previously mentioned before in fairytales, legends passed on throughout generations. No one really believed they were still in existence…until now. These bloodthirsty beasts were once close to ending mankind, and only a specialized group of warriors known as Sentinels could hold them back. Unfortunately, the Sentinels, much like the Ravenii, are a rare breed that has long been absent in society. Only one man carries on the Sentinel name, a… Read more

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Welcome to The Un-Halloween Horror Spectacular, April 17 – 23Step right up and welcome to the Un-Halloween Horror Spectacular Sale! In honor of Friday the 13th and, near halfway point to Halloween, the ID@Xbox team has curated some of our favorite horror games and discounted them by up to 70%. Whether you prefer to play as one of the world’s most prolific horror characters or enjoy a subtler scare with ominous figures and plotlines we have something for you. Starting Tuesday, April 17 and lasting through to Monday, April 23, turn off the lights, close all your blinds, turn up the sound, and terrify yourself with these exciting thrillers that are discounted for a limited time. Friday the 13th: The Game (60% off) – Play as Jason Voorhees, one… Read more